Background: Very few studies have evaluated the association between air pollution caused by the plastic recycling process and the health of rural children.Many plastic recycling factories discharging toxic and harmful gas into the air are located in inaccessible rural areas.Objective: To analyze the health impacts of the air pollution caused by recycling plastics on rural children and explore the characteristics and laws of related diseases for rural children due to such pollution, we conducted a specific survey for the local children, and cooperated with the local environmental protection or relevant government departments and proposed targeted measures for the protection of health of residents especially children in rural areas.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to examine 199 rural children living in a town of Guangdong province of China at least three years.Measures of 88 persons from the pollution areas which contain three villages mainly engaged in the processing of plastic waste and 111 persons from the control areas which contain four villages mainly engaged in farming were obtained through household survey with self-made questionnaire that contains six parts (basic information on children, living environment conditions, environmental awareness, physical indicators, symptoms and medical history, the eating habits that are related to diseases probably caused by the processing of plastic waste).Data were analyzed using bivariate logistic regression.Results: Differences of children between the two areas were statistically significant (x2=4.910, P=0.027) in the frequency of the respiratory symptoms (cough and expectoration,nasal congestion, sore throat), and the pollution areas were higher than the control areas.In addition, the difference of frequency of childrens digestive diseases (gastrointestinal disease, liver disease) is also statistically significant (P<0.05).Finally, results from bivariate logistic regressions suggested that the main factor affecting the childrens health is whether they often smell the plastic taste near residential areas, and further analysis suggests the skin disease has a positive correlation to it.Conclusions: The present study provided strong evidence that the air pollution caused by recycling plastics played an important role on the heath of rural children.We would better to strengthen childrens related knowledge about the health hazards of such pollution, preventing the occurrence of physical symptoms or illness, and improve the awareness of their self-health protection.